The Coffee Plant

Arabica and Robusta

The coffee plant belongs the plant genus Coffea & there are more than sixty different varieties. However most of the coffee consumed is either Coffea Arabica (Arabica beans) or Coffea Robusta (Robusta beans).

The Coffee Plant

A ripe coffee berry looks very much like a cranberry. In some parts of Africa, mainly in the Ivory Coast & Uganda, coffee plants growth wild & depending on the variety can grow to as high as 15 metres. On coffee plantations the plants are not allowed to grow any higher than 3 metres, this gives a higher yield of berries & makes harvesting an easier task. One coffee plant can produce berries for up to 25 years!

What does the coffee plant look like?

The leaves are wide, dark green and very glossy, they look quite similar to that of a camellia. The blossoms of the coffee plant are small, white, star shaped flowers that smell very much like jasmine.

Blossom & Harvest

Depending on the altitude and the weather conditions, the period between the coffee plant blossoming & the berries being ready to harvest is around eight to nine months. The plants often bloom for six to eight weeks, so it's quite common to find ripe & unripe berries on the same branch. It's vital that the plants are tended to regularly during bloom to ensure the optimum harvest, as the beans are picked by hand, it's very labour intensive & probably the most valuable step in the entire coffee process.

1kg per Plant

One coffee plant can produce up to 2000 beans a year, this translates to 1kg of raw coffee per year, per plant. With modern agricultural techniques we are able to harvest about 3000 - 4000 kg's of coffee per hectare of coffee plants.